Lakers center Andrew Bynum's latest transgression was not making himself available for reporters Tuesday, prompting a $15,000 fine from the NBA. KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

OKLAHOMA CITY – Because Andrew Bynum hasn't done all that much listening to some people trying to advise him, let's turn to the one guy for whom Bynum will pull off his studio-quality high-definition headphones ...

Kobe Bryant.

With the Lakers' season nearing its end and Bynum getting closer to following in Bryant's footsteps to undergo the German knee procedure Bryant endorses, Bynum was fined $15,000 by the NBA on Wednesday for not making himself available during the Lakers' post-practice media session.

It's just the latest hiccup in Bynum's first All-Star season, leaving outsiders dismissing him as unprofessional and immature.

Well, Bynum cares little what most outsiders think of him.

He has turned his back on people trying to advise him about being more professional – literally – and he closed the popular Twitter account that helped him get voted an All-Star starter because he found it unnatural to share his life so openly.

He really, really, really does not care what people think – and he really, really, really has no intention of changing.

So as I've tried to explain before, this is nothing new about him. It's only more people noticing as more demands are placed on him. Now that the spotlight is on him more than ever as a premier player, get used to these incidents or issues coming up again and again.

You could argue that Bynum fundamentally has some issues with authority and people telling him what he has to do, his parents divorcing shortly after he was born and him infrequently seeing his father. Bynum's hard-working mother was the force in his life, with his older brother the male influence in his life.

They did well enough to get Bynum here, which even with his amazing physical gifts, is no small feat – and Bynum deserves credit for developing from injury-prone project to frequent league dominator he is now.

What Bynum doesn't get is that his reputation is the only one he has, and none other than the self-focused Bryant learned that the hard way.

Here's what Bryant called himself when we sat down for an interview in 2009:

Naïve.

Bryant let his reputation get away from him and came to regret it.

"I kind of used to just roll with it," Bryant said. "Whatever they said about me, they said about me. I know it's not true, so I just let it be. Instead, having people around you who care about that and that's their job, they protect you. There's no sense in going out there and just taking gunfire."

The public perception of Bryant's rift with Shaquille O'Neal, who was active in his anti-Kobe campaigning, was one thing Bryant just let go because he didn't care to deal with it.

"That fractured people who supported me and people who didn't support me," Bryant said, "because it was like, 'Well, you can't support Shaq and support Kobe at the same time.' "

There are plenty of other reasons why people decided not to like Bryant, yet many of those are the same reasons people do like him – and they are aspects of his personality Bryant would never choose to alter.

Bryant in some ways wants to be a jerk and is OK coming off as a jerk.

Bynum is the same way, but different – because Bryant has always been conscious of his image.

Bynum truly doesn't care about that sort of thing, something that is never going to change completely – but is going to limit the things he can do in life besides jump for a basketball.

The question is: Will he ever care?

Bynum, 24, is not going to wind up pushing a line of designer knee braces that help you make sudden stops in handicapped parking spots or retire and open a real "Club 17" bar and lounge in honor of his nickname within the team for always booming those headphones.

Bynum is probably going to be like the player he most idolizes, Tim Duncan, in shrugging off others' public demands on him and keeping most of his personality to himself and those close to him ... until he just goes away and does his own thing.

Unlike Duncan, though, Bynum doesn't have a pristine record of doing the right thing.

So while Duncan's reputation can stay strong and focused on him being an on-court winner, Bynum will have an artistic career – with harsh reviews.

In a world where players draw fines for vicious and violent flagrant fouls and blatant disrespect shown to referees or coaches (all things Bynum has done, one might note), it might seem ridiculous to penalize similarly for not answering a few reporters' questions.

It's part of the league's business model, though, to have accessible, real players for fans to follow.

But the way things are going for Bynum, he can't win. He gets criticized in Round 1 for sharing his honest opinion that elimination games can be easy if the better team starts strong. He gets fined in Round 2 when he doesn't talk.

And the irony is that Bynum is one of the most "real" players in the league. Although he has moods where he prefers not to be interviewed, when he does talk it is with extreme candor and analysis. Furthermore, he actually is not an unlikable person.

For now, though, anyone who does dislike him has very little else to work with.

Bynum spends his life trying to be true to himself, whether right for you or wrong for him.

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